November 14, 2025: Dogback Mountain, NC, (SOTA W4C/EM-066, POTA US-3378)

The second day of my visit to North Carolina, Thomas and I visited Vlado, N3CZ whom I've had the great pleasure to work on CW before, but it's so great to meet in person! He is a fabulous CW operator, and his bench is full of exciting projects! I wish I had 1/10th of his electronics expertise! (From left to right: Me, Thomas, and Vlado).

The ascent to the top of the mountain was about 10 km on a rough road, and I was thankful that Thomas had his Subaru and was used to driving these roads. The weather was very dry, and the condition of the roads was good, I was told.

Getting to the top, the views were amazing! This was my first ever SOTA, so it goes without saying that I was pleased to have such a great mountain, great weather, and great company! I can hardly imagine improving on the day!

Thomas brought a delta loop to try out, and we worked together to get it deployed from two trees.

Thomas brought his nice Helinox chair, and he set up his lovely-sounding Elecraft KX1.

Thomas took the first shift and quickly found that the Delta loop was performing very nicely indeed!

I took the second shift, and really liked the knee-board that was designed to fit the KX1. I got about 15 contacts.

Vlado took the third shift.

Before heading back down the mountain for some lunch, took some more shots.

Of the QSOs, it was very nice to get some good friends in Ontario, Dave, VA3CP; Mike, VE3MKX; and Chris, VA3CJW. I was activating using my FCC call sign, KK7TMS.

Date Time Call State Band Mode
2025/11/14 18:53 AA2PF NY 20m CW
2025/11/14 18:54 KB1V IL 20m CW
2025/11/14 18:55 VA3CP ON 20m CW
2025/11/14 18:56 K4INA FL 20m CW
2025/11/14 18:58 VE3MKX ON 20m CW
2025/11/14 19:00 VA3CJW ON 20m CW
2025/11/14 19:04 AC7P TX 20m CW
2025/11/14 19:10 N3MNT MD 20m CW
2025/11/14 19:13 K5KHK NY 20m CW
2025/11/14 19:15 WB3DDJ PA 20m CW
2025/11/14 19:16 VA3UZ ON 20m CW
2025/11/14 19:17 WB3EYE MO 20m CW
2025/11/14 19:18 N1XV NJ 20m CW
2025/11/14 19:19 NØSMX FL 20m CW
2025/11/14 19:21 KB5HPM MS 20m CW

A wonderful day for sure!

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